ARTS COUNCIL NATIONAL LOTTERY PROJECT GRANTS

How to apply: Supplementary note

July 2020 – April 2021

How we’ll be using Project Grants between July 2020 and April 2021

Published July 2020 This supplementary note relates to Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants. See our website for more information about Project Grants.

In this sheet, we will talk about the following.

**How we’ll use National Lottery Project Grants during July 2020 – April 2021**

**Applying to National Lottery Project Grants in this period**

- Individuals and National Lottery Project Grants
- Demand

**The application form and criteria**

- Public engagement
- Management
- Finance: Match funding

**Updates to Project Grants**

**Timelines**

**Further changes to the programme**

**FAQs**

**Contact us** How we’ll use National Lottery Project Grants during July 2020 – April 2021

This note supplements our main How to apply guidance, which has stayed largely the same as it was before we suspended the programme in March 2020. It sets out how we will be responding to the COVID-19 period, and is a formal part of the programme guidance until April 2021.

All potential applicants should read both this note and the How to Apply guidance before applying.

All strands of Project Grants are reopening, including up to and over £15,000, National Activities, Touring Extensions, and Supporting Grassroots Live Music.

Applying to National Lottery Project Grants in this period

We wanted Project Grants to be available as quickly as possible to support individuals and organisations to get activities up and running again, and to help people take their first steps in getting re-engaged with culture and creativity.

We understand that the context applicants to Project Grants will be working in is very different in the post COVID-19 world. We will be taking the current context into consideration when we make our decisions, and we expect that the type of applications we receive will reflect the changed circumstances.

Project Grants is already able to support a really broad range of types of activity. We can support projects that directly create and deliver creative and cultural activity and content for audiences, visitors and digital users, and also those that have a longer term impact on strengthening the sector, such as organisational development, research and development and sector support. We will continue to support a wide range of different applications, from organisations and from individuals.

We know that we will receive a high number of applications, and we will need to prioritise where our investment can make a significant difference at the moment. Because of the circumstances during this COVID-19 period, we will be particularly keen to support:

- applications from individual creative practitioners (including time to think and plan)
- research and development activity
- organisational development activity
- live activity that can be safely delivered within this period (rather than activity with a start date far in the future)
- activity that closely aligns with our Equality Objectives

**Individuals and National Lottery Project Grants**

We want to make sure that individual applicants are well supported through Project Grants, particularly while other programmes for individuals like Developing your Creative Practice are not available. As we make decisions we will be making sure that the success rate for individual applicants is at least the same as it is for organisations.

In order to support individuals to apply for Project Grants we are currently exploring how we might be able to best use our resources for advice giving - focusing in particular on those who are represented in our Equality Objectives.

**Demand**

We know we will receive a high number of applications to Project Grants as the programme has been closed for some months. Please choose when to make your application carefully. Don’t rush to submit an application before you are ready, and make sure you have thought through the best way to shape your activity and how you are going to manage it. We will carefully manage our budget across the rest of the financial year to ensure there are funds available. The application form and criteria

The four criteria are: Quality, Public engagement, Finance and Management

The criteria for the programme remain the same, but the information you need to provide to answer the questions in the application form might feel a bit different during this period.

When we assess and make decisions, we’ll approach your answers with as much flexibility and openness as we can, and a keen sense of the challenges everyone will be facing at the moment. It’s still important that we ask these questions to help us determine what we will fund.

Public engagement

We know that public engagement, for example, is likely to involve smaller numbers of people for live activities at the moment, and/or a focus on engaging people through digital means. Public engagement might happen as part of the project, or it might happen in the longer term, beyond the boundaries of your project.

If you’re undertaking organisational development or focusing on research and development, you might use this section to tell us how the work you’re proposing will mean you are better able to engage people with your work in the future. We understand that good public engagement will look different – it’s important that we find out about all the different ways the work we support through Project Grants in this period will reach people.

Management

Managing an activity effectively and safely in this period means that applicants will need to take some new and different things into account. If an activity involves working with the public, you will need to have a plan in place to do this as safely as possible and manage risks effectively. You’ll need to use your answers in this section to tell us how you can feasibly deliver the project you’re proposing, and what you’ve done to make sure it is safely delivered. You’ll need to think about contingency plans if the situation changes. We’ll ask everyone who is offered a grant in this period to confirm that they have an appropriate risk management plan in place and that they are able to follow all current UK Government guidance on COVID-19. Our Terms and Conditions set out grantees’ responsibilities around adhering to UK Government guidance.

Finance: Match funding

We know that for most artists, creatives and organisations the current situation will make finding additional financial support extremely challenging. We have removed the requirement for a minimum 10 per cent match funding during this period. If you don’t have match funding, or you have less than 10 per cent, you will still be able to submit your application. If you do have some match funding (cash, in kind or a mix of both), do still tell us about it in your project budget. When we make decisions, we’ll take the difficulty of securing other funding at the moment into account.

We can only support project-related costs through Project Grants. We are not able to fund costs that have already occurred (retrospective funding) or losses (debt mitigation).

Updates to Project Grants

We’ve made some updates to Project Grants, which were already due to launch before the programme was suspended.

The main change is that public library applicants can now apply to Project Grants for activity that delivers against the four Universal Library Offers. This change is covered in the Project Grants and Libraries information sheet and the How to Apply guidance.

There are also some small changes to what type of museums can apply for museum and collections activity. These changes are covered in the Project Grants and Museums information sheet and the How to Apply guidance. Timelines

We’ll be making decisions as quickly as we can during this period. Where we can notify applicants of the outcome of their application more quickly than our standard turnarounds of six weeks (for applications under £15,000) and 12 weeks (for applications over £15,000) we will do so but this depends on the number of applications we receive and may not always be possible.

Further changes to the programme

We reserve the right to introduce new requirements and/or additional conditions based on any further guidance given and/or announcements made by the UK Government and any changing circumstances in relation to COVID-19. We hope to keep the programme open, but we reserve the right to withdraw the programme at any time in response to changing circumstances relating to COVID-19.

FAQs

A detailed list of Frequently Asked Questions is available on our website.

Contact us

Our offices and phone lines are currently closed to protect our staff, but you can contact us via email with any queries:

Email enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk Website www.artscouncil.org.uk

© Arts Council England July 2020